Vocal for Glocal: A Case Study of Education and Training Business Company’s Dilemma to Enter the MENA Region

Abstract

The Shiksha Knowledge Solutions case study highlights the entrepreneurial journey of the chief executive officer. Sam and his dilemma about whether to serve the local Indian market or go international by entering the Middle East and North Africa region to offer its services for education and training business. The company is a turnkey solution provider in India that provides computer-aided tools and is a one-stop solution for the kindergarten to intermediate (K-12) segment. The company also imparted training to teachers before initiating contracts with client schools. This case study discussed how this startup was clueless about the next move and lacked a suitable strategy for entering an international market.

Background

It was a sunny day on 13 July 2007, when Sam visited a nearby school to attend a parents–teachers’ Meeting alongside his nephew. He observed that college management was struggling with academic pressures regarding examination-related data management, as the school was not using any software to manage administrative/academic work. He then managed to interact with the school principal, Dr David. He learned that school staff had to work very hard to design tutorials, prepare examinations, manage students’ records, manage admission-related data, etc., which led to a lot of paperwork that was like a stress booster for school staff. Sam also observed that David had good technical knowledge, and he told him about his idea to develop a new product which would be turnkey solutions (computer-based teaching and learning, administrative software) for the education and training business (ETB) in the K-12 segment. This instance was the turning point for Sam, and he then conceptualized the idea of providing turnkey solutions for the schools, and this is the beginning of ‘Shiksha Knowledge Solutions’.

David liked the idea and advised Sam to offer a free demo version, and if he found it useful, he would give references to those schools run by Christian missionary dioceses. Sam realized that numerous different schools were confronting similar challenges, and this gave him the idea of starting his business as an educational service provider of computer-based tutorials in the ETB. This was an incredible business opportunity for Sam in the education sector, with a particular focus on the kindergarten to intermediate (K-12) segment. Just after finishing his master’s degree in business management, Sam, the eldest member of his middle-class family, was forced to search for a job opportunity to support his family.

Level of Competition in the Education and Training Business

Sam’s decision to start a business was too risky, as he would lose a fixed source of income from his current job. He approached a consultant for guidance, and the consultant did a market analysis tool known as Porter’s five forces. The tool has five elements, namely (a) threat of new entrants, (b) bargaining power of suppliers, (c) bargaining power of buyers, (d) threat of substitute products or services and (e) rivalry among existing competitors. After the market analysis, the consultant advised Sam that the competition in the ETB business was very high and the schools from K-12 segments wanted to buy ETB product offerings at lower prices. Sam finally decided to start his own company named ‘Shiksha Knowledge Solutions’ in 2008 with an initial investment of Indian Rupee (INR) 1,000,000 (approx. USD 20, 618—the currency exchange rate in 2008 against USD to INR was 48.50).

Initially, he confronted difficulties in entering the education sector because of the presence of information technology (IT) giants like the National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), Educomp, Everon and other ETB industry players who were already present and enjoying the business. So, Sam collaborated with NIIT as a franchise to get entry into the schools and received an initial easy entry into his dream world. He started rendering services to ETB on behalf of the parent company for the K-12 segment and generated revenue. Still, soon, he realized a large size of its profit was being shared with NIIT, and at the end of the day, he did not know what he was anticipating. At that point, he decided to go on his own, and very soon, his business reached a national presence. The company had grown tremendously with Sam at its helm, leveraging his expertise in IT and educational services, and with his proficiency in spearheading the team through unique, challenging situations, he brought the company towards success. Immensely happy with the rewarding development, Sam started focusing on an exclusive solution for the K-12 segment, where this company had introduced diverse technologies like a school management app, a principal desk and a digital platform that catered to all stakeholders of the school along with full-cycle services, starting from product conceptualization to implementation and support. Firmly believing in growing a proactive and systematic approach, his company achieved client satisfaction by implementing thoughtful actions like asking the right questions to clients and paying attention to them to resolve problems quickly.

Company Profile

Shiksha Knowledge Solutions is a leading school & IT service provider in Lucknow, India, started in 2008, providing full-cycle services, including implementation and product development. The company has been constantly looking for new technologies that make solutions even more valuable and exciting, using its proven experience by delivering services to more than 200 clients nationwide. Figure 1 depicts the company website screenshot, which shows all information related to the company.

Figure 1.

Source: Shiksha Knowledge Systems (https://www.shiksha.biz).

Shiksha Knowledge Solutions also provides turnkey computer teaching and learning solutions for the K-12 segment, Shiksha enterprise resource planning (ERP), Smart class and many other products. The company is among the few education and training business companies that have effectively combined conventional classroom training with the latest training and methodologies like computer-based teaching (CBT).

Product Offerings

The product range for the K-12 segment involved Shiksha ERP, Shiksha education management systems (EMS), SMART class, Campusnext.org.in and antivirus software for schools as shown in Figure 2. With a stark focus on covering curriculum-based training per the school’s requirement, his company designed products that significantly enhanced teachers’ teaching capabilities. Shiksha imparted training to more than 65,000 students state wide and had given training to over 200 teachers and faculties of leading colleges. The education system in India has been witnessing a paradigm shift from traditional education and administration at schools to the modern K-12 approach. From the book and blackboard and pen–paper approach to the contemporary digital learning methods and websites and smartphones to implementing various turnkey solutions for the smooth running of educational institutions, the K-12 offerings had come a long way.

Figure 2.

Source: Shiksha Knowledge Systems (https://www.shiksha.biz).

Key product offerings were as stated:

School Dekho: One of the portals related to the K-12 segment that caters to ETB and serves the stakeholders for all their basic needs right from job search, comparative analysis, stationery, etc.

Shiksha EMS: The Shiksha EMS is a complete tool for the schools to help overall administration and provide an opportunity to redesign many of their business processes, and institutions may gain substantial savings through more efficient business practices, cost avoidances and measurable increases in constituent satisfaction. It will also help organizations to add an unlimited number of administrators like HR, accountant, security, front office staff, etc. and to provide them access permissions.

SMART Education: SMART education is a comprehensive solution designed to assist teachers in meeting their day-to-day classroom challenges and enhancing students’ academic performance with simple, practical and meaningful use of technology. These technology classrooms use state-of-the-art hardware infrastructure, which includes a projector, interactive boards, computers, a podium and other hardware.

Campusnext.org.in: It is the only networking portal providing a complete platform and the most comprehensive solution for students, teachers, job seekers and recruiters. campusnext.org.in is a group of closed community networks for premier engineering and B-schools of India with collective professional experience of over 20 years. Each college has a closed user group for its students and alumni where they can stay in touch with each other, share information and view jobs as well as bulk deals posted especially keeping their needs in mind.

Inspiring the Future: Shiksha has been offering diverse innovative products such as Shiksha ERP for schools, which is comprehensive and designed specifically for all types of educational institutions. Using this software, one can monitor the overall working of the whole institution and have control over its day-to-day activities. In addition, parents can also use this software to keep track of their kid’s performance at school. Other product offerings are antivirus software for schools, hospital management, hotel management, wholesale/distribution, retail sales software, manufacturing ERP, ite@school and Mandi Software.

The Dilemma

All was going well until 2019, but Sam realized that it was the right time to expand the business of Shiksha Knowledge Solutions to attract new customers and retain existing ones; otherwise, its business would be confined to the local market. The key customers of the company were schools from the kindergarten to intermediate (K-12) segment in Uttar Pradesh, such as City Montessori School, Christ Church College, Emma Thompson School, Mary Lucas School and Lucknow Christian College, amongst others. Shiksha Knowledge Solutions provides turnkey solutions for schools, with product offerings ranging from smart education web portal services, EMS, teacher’s manpower recourses, computer-based tutorials, hardware, software and school ERP, and school students were the end users of their product offerings. The company was targeting only private schools, but the plan was to target new schools from the public sector as well as schools run by Christian missionary dioceses. Sam started working towards this plan to achieve the company’s vision and the aspiration to build a leading company in the K-12 segment with a presence in the local and international markets. However, he noticed that it needed much more work than he had imagined, and the amount of work stopped him from living a healthy lifestyle. Other than this, some relevant issues came on the track, like financial and technological issues and maintaining the customer base and the right person for the right job. He was engaged with the day-to-day marketing activities instead of working on the marketing plan developed by its consultant.

Meanwhile, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the education industry globally and resulted in creating business opportunities for the ETB industry. Sam thought this was not enough for his business and started planning his next move to go on the road ahead. Shiksha Knowledge Solutions’ business suffered a lot because of the absence of suitable marketing strategies. To overcome the ongoing business challenges, Sam took the assistance of a marketing expert who analysed Shiksha Knowledge Solutions using the SWOT analysis technique which was used to identify strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O) and threats (T) for a business. The marketing expert observed that the company’s biggest weaknesses were the limited market presence with stiff competition in the local market and the lack of suitable marketing strategies. He further added that the company had to develop a plan to enter the international markets, as the local market was highly competitive and seemed like a threat to the business. The company was among the leading providers of turnkey computer teaching and learning solutions for the K-12 segment with more than a decade of experience of serving over 200 clients in the local market, including several prestigious schools. A company with these strengths could think of entering an international market. At that point, after getting the market expert’s guidance, Sam decided to move to the international market and started developing his company’s distributor network in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This move helped him understand the needs and wants of target customers of the K-12 segment in the UAE market with its presence through the distributor network.

The Road Ahead

Considering the COVID-19 epidemic and the adoption of online education globally, Sam thought to infuse huge capital into product development, international collaboration and international market study. However, the apprehension was that the existing big players in the education sector might copy his business idea and might spoil his chances to make the big difference that he earnestly worked for a decade. However, the demographics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region were young with a digital upbringing. There was an increased digital adoption, and income levels were moderate in some areas and very high in countries, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, etc. Moreover, MENA was at a sweet junction of development in many respects. The MENA region had much potential for the ETB industry.

Table 1 and Figure 3 depict the company’s financial data, revealing the financial performance in the initial phases of its inception between 2008 and 2011. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shiksha appointed its distributors in the UAE market based on the marketing expert’s guidance and started selling its product offerings remotely. The company’s vision was to go international by registering its physical presence in the MENA region. Sam might be able to augment his business by entering this market, but he was confronted with a decision and needed to be more knowledgeable. Whether to concentrate on serving the local market by serving the international market remotely or expand internationally with its physical presence by entering the MENA region was a big question for Sam, and he was clueless about his next move.

Table 1.

Shiksha Financial Metrics Summary (in INR).

Year	Revenue	Net Income	Total Assets	Total Liabilities
2008	3,000,000	1,000,000	500,000	100,000
2009	1,200,000	−200,000	500,000	150,000
2010	2,400,000	750,000	300,000	120,000
2011	4,000,000	1500,000	500,000	100,000

Source: Data provided by the chief executive officer.

Figure 3.

Shiksha Financial Performance Data Provided by the Chief Executive Officer.